


Ink and Water Don't Mix

by rapteor



Category: Splatoon
Genre: M/M, other characters might show up at some point but they arent as relevant, partly inspired by some other fics ive read, rated teen bcus squids say bad words
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:44:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rapteor/pseuds/rapteor
Summary: Aloha gets stuck in a rainstorm, Army comes to his rescue.





	Ink and Water Don't Mix

It was raining. Badly. For the jellyfish and most creatures, it just meant they’d get wet. But for inklings and octolings, it meant stay inside or suffer painful burns.

From the window of his apartment, Army watched the colorful teenagers in the square running around to find shelter. The storm had, for the most part, come out of nowhere, so a lot of them had been playing turf when it struck. Army had been out practicing with the other S4 earlier that day, but he went home for a few minutes to swap out some of his gear. He was just about to leave again when it started to rain.

He was fortunate to have an apartment so close to the lobby. Some of his friends, however, weren’t as fortunate. Speaking of…

Army took note of a familiar pink inkling standing out in the nearly empty square.  _ Aloha… what was he thinking?  _ His house was pretty far from here. Did he really plan on walking the whole way back?

Nope. It was way too dangerous for that in this kind of weather. Without much of a plan, Army tied up his boots, grabbed a brella, and hurried down to the first floor of the building. Forge, who lived in the same building, stopped him on his way out. “I don’t know why you’re going out there Army, but I’m guessing I can’t stop you. Be careful though, I was just out there and it’s really not safe for us.” She proved her statement by showing him the backs of her hands. They were burned from the rain.

“Those burns look bad, Forge, are you okay?!” Army loudly worried. 

Forge grinned. “Don’t worry. They’re pretty minor, and I can take care of myself. If I’d been out there any longer though, I could’ve gotten some serious injuries.”

Army was suddenly reminded of his reason for coming downstairs. “Shoot, I have to go,” he muttered, already running towards the door. 

“Be careful!”

 

As soon as Army opened the door, his skin already began to sting. Not only was the rain coming down hard, but the wind felt strong enough to blow him over.  _ Better make this quick, _ he thought, taking a look around.

Army could just barely make out the pink of Aloha’s tentacles down the street. He held the brella out in front of him and ran towards the figure. “Aloha!”

Aloha was looking down at the road. He hadn’t heard Army. He was tightly gripping his visor in one hand and held his weapon case in the other. Unlike the brella Army had, his .52 Gal wouldn’t do much to protect him in the rain.

“Aloha!” Army called again. This time, Aloha heard him. He stopped running and looked up. For a moment, the expression on his face was like no expression Army had seen him make before. He looked.. Scared? But the expression was gone a moment later, replaced by a confused look 

“Army? What are you..” His words trailed off into a hiss as a strong gust of wind blew rain into their face.

“Shit, are you hurt? What am I saying, you’ve been running around in this storm for who knows how long, of course you’re-”

Before he starting trailing on, Aloha stopped him. “Army, please, I’ll be fine. You didn’t have to come out here to help me. My house is just ten blocks from here, I can make it there no problem.”

But Army knew better. The shakiness of his voice, the lip biting; Aloha was just trying to hide that he was in pain. “Listen, my apartment is just over there,” Army said, pointing to the complex a few yards away. “You can stay with me until the rain clears up, but I won’t allow a fellow S4 member to do something so reckless on my watch.”

Finally, Aloha gave in. He opened his mouth with a grin, perhaps to crack a joke, but was cut off by another gust of wind. “Let’s just hurry,” he hissed.

Without another word, the two inklings ran inside. Army shook the rain off the brella and Aloha pulled the door shut. The wind was so strong that when he finally got it closed, he fell backward. While they caught their breath, Army noticed the ink dripping off of Aloha’s skin. That… wasn’t a good sign. Aloha seemed to notice it too. 

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. Army watched him slump down and lean against the door, teeth clenched and eyebrows furrowed, drops of water trailing down his face, shirt soaked to his skin,  _ now’s not the time for that.  _ They sat there for a moment longer until Army finally said, “We should probably go dry off.”

They walked into the elevator and Army hit the button for his floor. There was no music in the elevator, and none of them said a word. All they could hear was the pounding of rain outside. For a moment, it was almost peaceful. 

But just before the elevator stopped, Aloha started to sway. And then he started to fall. Army yelped and dropped the brella he was holding to catch the falling inkling. “Um. Aloha?”  _ Is he unconscious? He’s still breathing... _

The elevator door opened and Army had no choice but to carefully cradle Aloha and carry him to his apartment. He couldn’t carry the boy and both of their weapons all at once, however, so he promised to come back for the weapons in a minute. 

Army set Aloha down on the couch and grabbed some spare towels from the bathroom. He sat on the floor by the couch and awkwardly tried to dry off his sleeping friend. Unfortunately, this gave way to a new problem. Aloha’s clothes were soaked through, and he could definitely get burned from that. But to dry him off fully, he’d have to undress him… and that felt like a major violation of Aloha’s privacy. On the other hand, leaving him in his wet clothes could cause serious injuries.  _ Please wake up,  _ he mentally prayed. Aloha did not wake up.

But Army had to do something. Reluctantly, he unbuttoned Aloha's Hawaiian shirt and slid it out from under him. He was surprised to find that Aloha didn't have too many burns on his torso. But the burns did look painful. Army referred to one of his first aid manuals and found the proper ointment for water burns.

Carefully following the instructions, he rubbed the ointment on the burns on Aloha's arms and chest. Anywhere else seemed like an invasion of his privacy. Now Army was praying for his friend to stay unconscious because things would get pretty awkward if he woke up now.

Army decided this was about as far as he'd go. The rest would have to wait until Aloha woke up. He threw the dry towels over the boy like a blanket. 

After putting Aloha's shirt and his own jacket in the dryer, he sat down on the couch next to Aloha. The time on his phone read 6:02 pm. The S4 had been out practicing since lunchtime… Both of them hadn't had any dinner yet. Army gladly took the opportunity to make some curry.

Ever since his fight with the Blue Team two years back, he'd fallen in love with cooking. It wasn't just curry- he loved making all sorts of foods. Cooking came so naturally to him, all he had to do was go by the book. There was something so calming about chopping up vegetables and stirring them into a pot, the smell of the dish filling the air and blocking out all of Army's problems. As he mixed the ingredients, he let the sound of rain on the window fade into the background. For a moment, he forgot all about the situation with Aloha.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is the first fic I've written in a while, so sorry if the pacing is weird. I'm a slow writer, so I can't say when the next chapter will be up, but hopefully it'll be done in the next two weeks. I know this chapter is pretty short, the others will probably be longer. :)
> 
>  
> 
> follow my art insta- @lov3lleknight


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